Turkey hosts roundtable on India’s controversial citizenship law

• The roundtable was organized by Istanbul-based think tank the South Asia Strategic Research Center.

Turkey hosted on Wednesday a roundtable on India’s controversial citizenship law which guarantees citizenship to non-Muslim religious minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The roundtable was organized by Istanbul-based think tank the South Asia Strategic Research Center (GASAM). Mehmet Ozay from Istanbul’s Ibn Haldun University and Nedim Cavdari, a researcher and Istanbul-based medical doctor were the speakers, Anadolu agency reported.

Speaking at the roundtable, Ozay said there is a political understanding in India that discriminates against minorities. "Perhaps today we are witnessing a process in which India is turning from a multicultural, multi-ethnic, secular structure based on its 1947 constitution…to an Islamophobia-dominant country," he further said.

He said it is better to look at the question of what India is trying to do 'in the context of Islamophobia in the West and persecution and ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Myanmar'.

Describing the citizenship law as an act against Muslims, Cavdari said that the law was introduced to clean up Muslim culture from the country."You can stay as a Muslim there, but you have to live Hindu culture socially," he said.